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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28819299">a symphony of emotion</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivermectin/pseuds/ivermectin'>ivermectin</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>"jenny &amp; dan against the world" (or, the Osmosis / GG AU that NOBODY asked for) [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Gossip Girl (TV 2007)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Dan and Blair are Soulmates, F/M, Getting Together, Married Life, No Spoilers, Soulmates, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, but it will be referenced later in the series so it's here, this makes sense as a standalone piece (you don't need to read the other work or anything)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 11:41:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,094</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28819299</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivermectin/pseuds/ivermectin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Every evening, Dan would lovingly cut apples and peel oranges for Blair, and Blair would stand across him in the kitchen and watch him do it, and eat everything he gave her, and say, “You don’t need to do this for me,” and he would say, “I want to.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dan Humphrey &amp; Jenny Humphrey, Dan Humphrey &amp; Serena van der Woodsen, Dan Humphrey/Blair Waldorf</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>"jenny &amp; dan against the world" (or, the Osmosis / GG AU that NOBODY asked for) [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2100960</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>a symphony of emotion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysteriesofloves/gifts">mysteriesofloves</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>this serves... like a flashback, let's say. so it has no spoilers for osmosis &amp; it makes perfect sense, even without reading part 1!!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>1</p><p>The first time Dan had seen her, he’d been in the audience. His breath had come all wrong, he’d recognized her voice like it was something tethering him to this plane of existence. He’d needed to get up, leave in the middle of the performance, sit outside and take slow breaths.</p><p>Jenny had given him some words of reassurance – that he would never know if he didn’t try, that it couldn’t be a coincidence, her face in his mind’s eye, her name – <em>Blair </em>– on  his lips as he blinked himself awake.</p><p>“It means something,” she’d said to him. “It <em>has to </em>mean something, Dan, it’s coming from somewhere.”</p><p>“I’m hallucinating some random woman, yay,” Dan had said drily. “I don’t think that’s particularly normal, Jen.”</p><p>“You’ve never been normal, Cedric can attest to that,” Jenny pointed out. She’d said, “I think this really means something. Trust me.”</p><p>And that was the bottom line – Dan <em>did. </em>He did trust Jenny.</p><p>So he was here, in the corridor, taking even breaths, remembering the way Blair’s voice had sounded from stage; like a symphony of emotion, soft yet powerful.</p><p>He’d made himself go back in, stayed back until after the show was over. He’d walked up to her then, feeling more nervous than he’d ever felt in his entire life.</p><p>“Blair Waldorf?” he’d asked, extending a hand to her. She’d shook it, looked at him with a question in her eyes. “Dan Humphrey,” he’d said. “You were wonderful up there.”</p><p> </p><p>2</p><p>They fit together so well. Daily visits to the cinema, to art galleries, to the library, sneaky picnics and visiting restaurants became routine sooner than Dan had dreamed of hoping. They spent most mornings reading the paper together, doing the crossword while they bickered over whose vocabulary was better (Dan maintained that however much he loves Blair, his would always be better, Blair firmly disagreed) and they read opinion pieces on new film releases and complained about the authors’ opinions.</p><p>Blair practiced her lines with Dan, and Dan learnt the lines that served as her prompts, just to help. He’d sit in the audience sometimes, mouthing the lines that the other actors would say before Blair’s dialogues.</p><p>Jenny would usually prod him with a sharp elbow. “You’re being weird,” she’d tell him.</p><p>But when Blair realised the extent to which he was familiar with the productions she was in, she wrapped her arms around him and spun him in circles. (One of the first things he’d learnt about Blair was that for such a tiny person, she was very strong and ferocious.)  </p><p>“It’s like you’re always with me,” she’d said.</p><p>And that had helped Dan tell her more, about the implant, about the soulmate connection, about waking up and seeing her face and feeling like he was destined to know her, and Blair had listened to him, gone over the stats with Jenny, and after a week of thinking it over, she’d said, “Do me, too. I want the connection to be reciprocal.”</p><p>After that, it was. Dan’s heart and soul belonged to Blair, and the implant formed a chemical connection, linking them together on some other plane.</p><p>“I think we should get married,” Dan had suggested, two weeks after they’d been connected this way.</p><p>“Aren’t we already, in every way that matters, Humphrey?” Blair had said, teasingly. But she’d been smiling like the sun, softly radiant.</p><p>They got married the following week. Both Dan and Blair had always been romantics at heart, and they wanted a fancy wedding. Jenny organised for a flock of doves, as a joke, but Dan unironically loved it, and Blair only pretended to hate it. There were lots of peonies, and Blair wore pink, and Dan looked at her like she was the whole world, like she’d put every star in the sky, and the best part was that she looked right back at him the same way.</p><p> </p><p>3</p><p>The house they chose together was cosy and snug, too. A quaint little place, glamourous and modern and elegant, the sort of house that had personality and spirit but also said, <em>the people who live here are glamorous, and have a good understanding of aesthetics. </em>It was a blue-grey little nook, small enough that they felt like they were huddled up together, but spacious enough to still feel posh.</p><p>“It’s just like us,” Blair had said, when Dan had tried to explain that to her. “A contradictory, complicated, beautiful and nuanced little thing. I can’t wait to live here with you.”</p><p>It’d felt like they’d lived together forever. Every evening, Dan would lovingly cut apples and peel oranges for Blair, and Blair would stand across him in the kitchen and watch him do it, and eat everything he gave her, and say, “You don’t need to do this for me,” and he would say, “I want to.”</p><p>They both had their quirks. Blair wouldn’t leave the house unless her shoes matched her outfit, and Dan – Dan still was prone to bouts of melancholic sulking, and pretending his father didn’t exist.</p><p>Blair never pushed him. Dan had told her… well… everything, before they’d gotten married.</p><p>“So, if you want somebody else, I understand,” he’d said.</p><p>“No, what the hell,” Blair had said firmly. “Dan, this doesn’t change anything. I still love you.”</p><p>Dan had leaned against her, and her arms had encircled him.</p><p>“You don’t think I’m a bad person for not seeing him?” Dan had said, finally.</p><p>“You don’t owe him a damn thing,” Blair had said, adding for good measure, “You’re not a bad person.”</p><p><em>Yeah, I’m not sure Jenny would feel the same way, </em>Dan had thought, but he hadn’t said anything.</p><p> </p><p>4</p><p>“You’ve built your life around Blair, haven’t you?” Serena asked him once.</p><p>“Of course,” Dan had said. “She’s my wife, <em>and </em>my soulmate.”</p><p>“Are you sure that’s healthy?” Serena had asked. “Structuring so much of who you are around somebody else? That too, someone you found solely through brain chemicals?”</p><p>“Everything every human is experiencing at any time is just brain chemicals,” Dan had pointed out. “Besides, does it matter? She makes me happy. Sometimes, it feels like she’s the only thing in my life that <em>does.</em>”</p><p>“Okay,” Serena had said, smiling at Dan. “That’s all that matters.”</p><p>But it had left Dan with a feeling of temporary unease.</p><p>“Do you think I love you a little too much?” he’d asked Blair, that night.</p><p>“Yes,” Blair had said, and she’d kissed him firmly. “But it’s alright, because I love you a little too much, too.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading! hope you enjoyed :o)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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